What is an Equality Impact Assessment

							     Tameside & Glossop PCT
Equality Impact Assessment Guidance
What is an Equality Impact Assessment?

An equality impact assessment (EIA) is the process of assessing the impact
of existing or proposed functions or policies in relation to their consequences
for equality target groups. This includes looking for both positive and negative
impacts on equality target groups. The impact assessment process is an on-
going process, and not a process that just happens once, and should develop
and evolve alongside the functions and policies of the organisation. It involves
anticipating the consequences of functions and policies and making sure that,
as far as possible, any negative consequences are minimised and
opportunities for promoting equality are maximised.

The purpose of impact assessment process is to achieve improvements for
equality target groups, so most well carried out impact assessments will
require some form of action to be taken to bring about greater equality within
the organisation. The outcomes of such actions are required to be monitored
and reviewed as part of the ongoing equality impact assessment process.

The nature and detail of the equality impact assessments will vary from
assessment to assessment but it should not be seen as inherently difficult, or
as an activity apart from other policy development and assessment work.

Where does an EIA come from?

Impact assessments originate from the Race Relations (Amendment) Act
2000 and recently, various other equality legislation has also stated that this
process must be carried out as part of the public sector obligations within the
law.

The equality impact assessment should be seen in the context of both the
specific and general duties described in the various pieces of legislation,
which are:

Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000
Disability Equality Duty 2005
Equality Duty 2006

An authority (Tameside and Glossop PCT) subject to the specific duties within
the above pieces of legislation is required to produce and publish a race,
disability and gender equality scheme (Equalities Scheme) that includes a
statement of the arrangements for assessing the impact of the Trust’s
functions and policies, or the likely impact of its proposed functions and
policies on equality target groups.

The specific duties are, however, not an end in themselves, but designed to
help authorities meet the general duty. The specific duty requirement to
conduct impact assessments is designed to provide a mechanism for
ensuring that due regard is given to race, disability and gender equality in the
decision-making and the activities of the Trust.
What are equality target groups?

Tameside and Glossop Primary Care Trust defines equality target groups as:
women, men, black and minority ethnic people, lesbians, gay men, bisexual
people, trans people, young people and children, older people, disabled
people and people from different faith groups.

The equality areas or strands within the Trust are gender, disability, race, age
religion or belief and sexual orientation. The strands are inclusive of all
people.

What is meant by ‘impact’?

A negative or adverse impact:

An impact that could disadvantage one or more equality target groups. This
disadvantage may be differential, where the negative impact on one particular
group is likely to be greater than on another. It should also be noted that some
negative impacts may be intended. The EIA provides an opportunity to access
this. The equality impact assessment process gives opportunity to assess
this.

For example: An event that was held in a building with no induction loop
facilities would have a negative or adverse impact on some attendees with a
hearing impairment.

A positive impact:

An impact that could have a positive effect on one or more equality target
groups. This can involve improving equal opportunities and / or relationships
between groups. This positive impact may differential, where the positive
impact on one particular group of individuals or one equality target group is
likely to be greater than on another.

For example: A targeted training programme for black and minority ethnic
women would have a positive differential impact on black and minority ethnic
women, compared with its impact on white women and all men. It would not,
however, necessarily have an adverse impact on white women or all men.
This would have to be evidenced with the appropriate data.

Who is responsible for carrying out EIA’s?

Each policy and service lead within the Trust will take responsibility for
identifying, functions, policies, strategies or projects that will need to be
impact assessed. The service / policy leads will need to attend EIA training
before they can conduct the screening exercise needed for each policy,
function, strategy and project.

When working on joint services, policies and strategies it is the policy / service
lead that should raise the issue of needing to carry out an equality impact
assessment with the partner organisations. The lead organisation in the group
has the responsibility to initiate an EIA and carry it out with partner input.

When should an EIA be carried out?

An equality impact assessment (initial screening process) should be carried
out when:

Developing a new policy, strategy, function and project;
Reviewing existing policies or changing existing policies;
Those strategies, policies, functions or projects that have been prioritised and
identified for EIA in year 1, 2 or 3 of the Equalities Scheme.

All managers are responsible for incorporating equality into their work, which
may be functions of the organisation, strategies, policies or projects, and for
assessing the equalities impacts. This should be a continuous process,
starting at the very beginning with assessing the need of the communities of
Tameside and Glossop. If there is any doubt as to whether a function, policy,
strategy or project requires the initial screening of the equality impact
assessment process, then managers should contact the Equality and
Diversity Manager.

The EIA process consists of two parts:

The initial screening process / template
The Full Equality Impact Assessment if the initial screening process has
identified an adverse / negative impact.

The Initial Screening Process

The initial screening process of a function or policy to see if the function and /
or policy has any relevance to any of the equality target groups. Ideally this
stage should be completed during the development or design of the function /
policy before its goes to any group or committee for approval. If the function /
policy is going to the Board for approval then it is a requirement of the Board
that an impact assessment is carried out before it can go to the meeting. All
functions and policies will be screened to find out if they need to have a
full equality impact assessment conducted on them. Once the appropriate
template (function / policy) has been filled out accordingly then a full equality
impact assessment will only need to be conducted if:

Any equality target group was identified as being disadvantaged or adversely /
negatively impacted by the policy, strategy, function or project.

The impact was assessed as of high importance any policy / service that has
a major impact on the organisation at this screening stage, you should be
assessing obvious negative / positive impact or gaps in the knowledge about
likely impact. It should be a relatively short process, which makes use of:
Demographic data and other statistics, including census findings recent
research finding including studies of deprivation results of recent consultations
and surveys results of the ethnicity monitoring data and any equalities data
from local authority information from groups and agencies within Manchester
comparisons between similar policies and functions analysis of PALS,
complaints and public enquires information analysis of audit reports and
reviews.

A lack of the above information concerning a particular area should not be a
reason to stop the impact assessment process. If a likely impact on a
particular group is unknown or this information is not available then action
needs to be taken to acquire this information.
Completed screening templates (electronic copies if possible) should be sent
to the Equality and Diversity Manager for their approval before a decision is
made if the full equality impact assessment process should be embarked
upon due to adverse / negative impact.

See flowchart 1 – Screening Process.

The Full Equality Impact Assessment

This part of the process provides an opportunity to assess the evidence for a
possible negative / adverse impact. It ensures that research and consultation
with the equality target groups is carried out and leads to the improvement
planning work to minimise or eradicate the negative impact.

The process will involve the equality target groups, which can then
recommend how to improve and eradicate negative impacts. During this
process it will also ensure that consultation with the equality target groups is
also completed.

All of the impact assessment documents both initial screening templates and
full impact assessment notes will be available to the public and will be
published on the website. The publishing of the EIA’s is key to establishing
accountability and maintaining public confidence and organisation
transparency. This will also demonstrate that the organisation is committed to
equality, whilst monitoring, assessing and consulting on the effects of the
functions, policies, strategies and projects of the Trust.

See flowchart 2 – Full Impact Assessment Process.

What is a ‘function’ or ‘policy’ of Tameside and Glossop PCT?

The Home Office and the Commission for Race Equality (CRE) have defined
a policy as ‘any practice or written document which sets out a course of
action, guiding principles or procedure which is adopted and implemented by
the Authority. This includes any decisions taken or recommendations made at
meetings which may lead to action to implement’.
A ‘function’ is any activity of Tameside and Glossop PCT. A policy is any
prescription, whether formal or informal, written or customary, on how a
function should be carried out. As such it will include policies, strategies,
guides, manuals and common practice, decisions that could lead to the
formulation of a policy or practice.

Support & Guidance

The Equality and Diversity Manager is happy to give advice and support to
individuals or teams in carrying out EIA. Please ensure that completed EIA’s
are sent electronically (if possible) back to the team as soon as possible. The
Access and Inclusion Team can also give information to the organisation
around various aspects of Equality and Diversity, including equal opportunities
and anti-discrimination.

Equality Impact Assessment Training is delivered within the Trust by the
Equality and Diversity Manager supported by the Education, Training and
Development Team. Dates are rolled out throughout the year and the Equality
and Diversity Manager will invite lead / senior managers to attend the training
as appropriate. The training is a three hour session and will involve managers
acquiring a knowledge of the current legislation, how to use the screening
templates and considering equalities in everything that they do.
             Equality Impact Assessment Process Chart
                         Screening Process


                    Does the policy, strategy or service meet the
                             criteria to require an EIA?




                  Yes                                        No further action required until
                                                           review or change in policy / service

         Discuss the proposal with the Equality and Diversity Co-ordinator
           to get advice on how to include equality and diversity issues


              Screening pro-forma to be carried out by
                    service/ policy lead or team


               Has an adverse / negative impact been
                            identified?                                 No


                                 Yes
                                                                      Fill in action plan
                                                                     within pro-forma in
                                                                    order to minimise low
                 Full Equality Impact Assessment                    impacts and promote
                              required                                      equality.
                                                                    Full Equality Impact
                                                                      Assessment not
                                                                            required
                                                                       isseminateood




N.B    If a member of staff is unsure about any stage of the EIA process then the
EIA guidance handbook should be referred to or the Equality and Diversity Co-
ordinator should be contacted.
           Equality Impact Assessment Process Chart
               Full Impact Assessment Process



                     Full Equality Impact Assessment required



               EIA Panel process set up between lead managers and
                            equalities representatives


             Questions asked by panel to managers in order to explore
                   adverse impacts of policy, strategy or service


              Solutions identified to promote equality and address any
                             adverse / negative impacts


                        Action plan agreed and implemented



                   Performance review date agreed and added to
                            performance accelerator


                                 Publication of EIA




N.B    If a member of staff is unsure about any stage of the EIA process then the
EIA guidance handbook should be referred to or the Equality and Diversity Co-
ordinator should be contacted.